The present invention relates to an optic-electronic transmission system.
European Pat. No. 2 971 discloses a bus system for fiber optics, interconnecting sources and destination units. Also, signal regenerating units are provided which boost the transmitted signal. Such a regenerating unit is really a combination of a destination and a source. Each such participating unit as connected to a fiber is provided with an electrically controllable optical shutter, constructed to ensure that the signal by-passes the unit in the case of failure. In other words, the optical transmission system as a whole must remain operational, even if one of the participating regenerators is down for any reason, as, hopefully, the signal can still be used even without a particular regeneration step. As long as a participating regenerating unit is operational, the bypass is closed, i.e., blocked; the optical signal is received, converted into an electrical signal which, in turn, is regenerated; and the regenerated signal is again converted into an optical signal and passed back into the optical bus.